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I haven't been to Bournemouth for years, but it looks like Yellow Buses' most frequent routes have strong competition from More, whilst More have Poole practically to themselves and have most of the market on the busy route between the two town centres. Not a situation I'd have thought you'd...

This is exactly what the directors and shareholders were hoping for when they decided not to upgrade or replace their trains. It's blackmail, pure and simple. Give Northern their day in court, nationalise without compensation.

What about Birmingham Interchange?

There are far more disabled people in the country than there are commuters on Pacers, and the latter group will be shrinking all the time now. The vast majority of people don't commute by train, and the vast majority of those who do, do so on trains in compliance with the law. Extending the use...

Northern Rail commuters make up a very small percentage of the electorate in the North, and no one elsewhere in the country will notice any shortage of trains. A Commons vote to overturn long-standing equalities legislation to get the government out of a hole and boost the profits of the hated...

Exactly. At what point does the advertising become misleading enough for the ASA to take a look at? Even assuming it is possible to live up to all the promises, it doesn't sound like they can reasonably expect to be delivering a top notch service any time soon.

Reports suggest they're going to reopen Rusholme for the Vantage routes, which aren't part of the sale of Bolton (and apparently can't be sold).

The news today that Rotala are buying First's Bolton operation, along with the earlier sale of the Queens Road depot to Go Ahead adds to the need for franchising to come sooner rather than later. It will be even harder to make a success of the buses if the private operators are allowed to tear...

So which routes do Rotala get? Presumably all those serving Bolton and the Bury-Ramsbottom routes, does Bolton have the 163 as well?

Preston-Morecambe is now back as a regular stopping bus. Which route did the X63 take between Blackburn and Burnley? Unless you use the motorway the fastest route is that taken by the now Transdev 152. Blackburn-Accrington avoiding Oswaldtwistle was culled last year and the direct route between...

The train will be the major problem there - there isn't a peak time train+tram day ticket either. Most likely the DfT don't want a TfGM ticket undercutting peak fares. Similarly with the bus+tram ticket - it's set above the Metrolink all zones fare, which will be higher than the cost of buying...

I would speculate that the small operators that cause the trouble often lack the money to do the job properly and have a lot of power in the hands of a few people, who aren't influenced much by lawyers or unions or the threat of the press being much interested in their small business. I can see...

Within a TOC, or other separation that exists for historical reasons, roughly speaking train drivers are all the same grade, work the same hours and don't individually negotiate pay, so it would be surprising if any major gap existed. The rail industry as a whole is a very different story...

If you mean on the circular diagram I can only notice the links either side of Irlam which don't currently exist? They make the map look nice but I doubt they'll be at the front of the queue for limited funds. Also the diagram seems to imply the Airport replacing Wythenshawe centre as an...

I don't know what it should be called, but I would assume the idea would be similar to London (but with much less money available), though I think it has been suggested before they'd tender groups of routes rather than individually like London.

As you say the buses bought by Blazefield are cheap to operate, but Transdev's fares are not bargain basement. They've still got a lot of old Blazefield or Rosso vehicles - are we to expect extra fare rises for every new order for the next few years?

Unless there's a situation involving Magic Bus I don't know about it never makes sense to buy four singles or two returns instead of a day ticket on the same company anyway. Eliminating operator specific tickets will make the biggest difference for connecting journeys. How successful has the...

If a hypothetical bus route costs £100k to run and has revenue of £120k, the buses satisfy your condition of profitability. If you can reduce costs to £80k by eliminating over capacity, but keep revenues the same, or even increase them by raising fares, the route is now more profitable, and you...

I'm curious as to the reasoning behind cutting APD on premium and business tickets? Would this benefit not primarily accrue to already relatively wealthy people? (And be very concentrated in the South East of England because most flights at regional airports are economy only?) Personally I...

Yes, if you could run fewer buses without losing many passengers - which you can if the buses are only a minute apart and not full, or if you could ramp up fares in the absence of competition - i.e abolish magic bus.